US-China Relations

Chinese President Hu Jintao is in the United States this week for a state visit.

HENRY ROSEMONT
Available for a limited number of interviews, Rosemont is visiting
professor of religious studies at Brown University and author of several
books including A Chinese Mirror: Moral Reflections on Political Economy
and translations of Chinese classics. He said today: "China is a threat
to the United States only if the United States assumes that it is, and
pursues an aggressive foreign policy that serves only our own and not
China's interests. The best hope for a less tension-filled world is for
both countries to reduce military spending significantly -- with the U.S.
taking the lead both to show good faith and because its military budget
is larger than the rest of the world's combined -- and to be willing to
surrender a little of their sovereignty to the United Nations in order
to strengthen that organization's ability to reduce terrorism and war
and adjudicate disputes between nation states." Rosemont wrote the piece
"Is China a Threat?"

ROBERT WEIL
Weil is the author of Red Cat, White Cat: China and the Contradictions of "Market Socialism".
He said today: "The U.S. and Chinese leadership have a common interest
in maintaining the stability of the current global capitalist system,
and are symbiotically linked through trade, investment and government
financing ties. However, they disagree over the best means to carry out
the exploitation of the working class -- 'free market' versus 'statist' --
and over the division of the spoils. China is challenging the U.S.
'right' to dominate East Asia, economically, politically, and militarily
and is even beginning to assert its power globally. This leads to a
schizophrenic 'hot-and-cold' relationship, with the need to cooperate,
avoid conflict and 'manage' such issues as North Korea on the one hand --
and the intensification of an increasingly dangerous rivalry on the
other. The U.S. is aggressively pursuing a new 'containment' policy of
political and military alliances around China. But growing polarization
and working class discontent in both countries may affect future
relations."

JOSEPH GERSON
Gerson is disarmament coordinator of the American Friends Service
Committee; for several years he has led a series of exchanges between
U.S. and Chinese peace advocates and scholars. He said today: "U.S.
people have not been told that the recent U.S.-Japanese and U.S.-Korean
military 'exercises' in the Yellow Sea were experienced by Chinese as
much the same way Americans would have responded to Chinese military
'exercises' in Chesapeake Bay just miles from our national capital in
Washington, D.C.

"To enforce the 'containment' of China and to compensate for the
relative decline of U.S. economic and military power, Washington is in
the process of encircling China with an expanding of network military
alliances from East Asia to NATO, including the restructuring of ...
foreign military bases. These include the creation of the tacit alliance
with India, U.S. bases in Central Asia, the toppling of the Hatoyama
government in Japan, U.S. encouragement of greater Japanese-South Korean
military collaboration and 'partnerships' between NATO and selected
Asian nations.

"The U.S. military budget remains more than ten times the size of
China's. With millions of people across the U.S. in need of jobs,
education and trade lagging, our deteriorating 20th century
infrastructure, we need to reduce military spending so that our tax
dollars can be used to revitalize the nation and provide for essential
human needs. Chairman Hu speaks of building common ground. Better,
President Obama should pursue a Common Security approach to U.S.-Chinese
tensions, in the tradition of the Common Security approach that
resulted in the end of the U.S.-Soviet Cold War."